[Okfn-ca] Fwd: [open-government] Beneficial ownership registries should be published as open data

Wed Aug 21 18:03:20 UTC 2013

PVI | FYIokfn

-------- Message original --------
Sujet: 	[open-government] Beneficial ownership registries should be 
published as open data
Date : 	Wed, 21 Aug 2013 14:07:13 +0200
De : 	Christian Villum <christian.villum at okfn.org>
Pour : 	Open Government WG List <open-government at lists.okfn.org>

 From the Open Knowledge Foundation blog, by Jonathan Gray, Director of 
Policy & Ideas:

    Beneficial ownership registries should be published as open data

August 21, 2013 in Campaigning 
<http://blog.okfn.org/category/campaigning/>, Featured 
<http://blog.okfn.org/category/featured/>, Open Data 
<http://blog.okfn.org/category/open-data/>, Open Government Data 
<http://blog.okfn.org/category/open-government-data/>, Policy 
<http://blog.okfn.org/category/policy/>, Public Money 
<http://blog.okfn.org/category/campaigning/public-money/>

In the coming months many governments around the world will decide 
whether databases of who really owns and controls companies should be 
made public or not.

As we?ve said before 
<http://blog.okfn.org/2013/06/25/what-data-needs-to-be-opened-up-to-tackle-tax-havens/>, 
we think registers of ?beneficial ownership 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beneficial_ownership>? (i.e. registers of 
who really stands to benefit from company ownership, not just whomever 
it is convenient or expedient to list) should be published as open data.

*We call on open data and transparency advocates around the world to 
join us in asking their governments to take action on this issue, and to 
push for concrete commitments to publish registries of beneficial 
ownership publicly, as open, machine readable databases.*

A visualisation of legal entities that are part of the same corporate 
grouping fromOpenCorporates 
<http://opencorporates.com/viz/financial/index.html#goldman//2652>

        Who gets to see who really owns companies?

In June G8 countries committed to cracking down on hidden company ownership.

The Lough Erne Declaration 
<https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/g8-lough-erne-declaration/g8-lough-erne-declaration-html-version> and 
principles to prevent the misuse of companies 
<https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/g8-action-plan-principles-to-prevent-the-misuse-of-companies-and-legal-arrangements/g8-action-plan-principles-to-prevent-the-misuse-of-companies-and-legal-arrangements> from 
the G8 both allude to better information sharing between tax 
authorities, and state that tax collectors, law enforcers, financial 
intelligence units, and financial institutions should be able to access 
information on who really owns companies.

But what about the rest of us? Shouldn?t journalists, campaigners and 
citizens have access to information about who really owns companies ? in 
order to investigate illicit and unfair behaviour and to push for change?

        The advantages of public registries

We think that there are many advantages to having public registries of 
beneficial ownership information.

Firstly, *public registries would enable the media and civil society to 
hold companies to account* ? by helping them to identify corruption and 
illicit activity.

Secondly, studies by the UK, the EU and Global Witness 
<http://www.globalwitness.org/sites/default/files/library/Anonymous%20Companies%20Global%20Witness%20briefing.pdf> suggest 
that *public registries would be significantly more cost effective than 
the status quo*.

Thirdly, *public registries will impose no additional administrative 
burden on companies* ? entailing only small modifications to existing 
processes.

        Making them public is not enough ? they must be published as
        open data

For registries of beneficial ownership to have maximum impact, we think 
it is essential that they are published as *machine readable open 
databases*.

Users of the data must be able to analyse the data and to easily cross 
reference and combine datasets from different sources. Hence it is 
essential that they are machine readable, and available for downloading 
in bulk (as per the Open Definition <http://opendefinition.org/okd/>), 
rather than published as non-machine-readable documents or through a 
search interface which limits querying.

Furthermore the data should be openly licensed 
<http://opendefinition.org/licenses/> to enable people to use it, 
republish it, and combine it with other datasets. We think is essential 
if we are to gradually piece together a *shared, collaborative ecosystem 
of data about companies and their activity around the world*.

        Now is time to act

There are several major opportunities to make progress on this issue in 
the coming months:

  * The *UK* currently has an open consultation
    <https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/company-ownership-transparency-and-trust-discussion-paper> on
    beneficial ownership (closing 16th September 2013), which explicitly
    asks for views on whether the registry should be made public. If
    you?re in the UK and want to see the registry being made public as
    open data, we strongly encourage you to respond
    <https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/company-ownership-transparency-and-trust-discussion-paper> with
    arguments and evidence about why this matters. If the UK commits to
    making registries public, then it is much more likely that other
    countries will follow.
  * The *EU* is also in the process of updating and improving its Anti
    Money Laundering Directive
    <http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/company/financial-crime/index_en.htm>,
    which represents a major opportunity to increase transparency of
    beneficial ownership in Europe.
  * For the *Open Government Partnership partner countries*, the Open
    Government Partnership Summit
    <http://www.opengovpartnership.org/ogp-london-annual-summit> this
    autumn will provide an opportune moment for governments to announce
    their commitments to public registries of beneficial ownership. We
    hope to see as many governments and civil society organisations as
    possible coming out in support of public registries, published in
    accordance with open data principles.

You?ll be hearing more from us on this issue in the coming weeks and 
months, so watch this space! If you?re interested in discussing this 
with us, you can join our public openspending 
<http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/openspending> list.

Original post: 
http://blog.okfn.org/2013/08/21/beneficial-ownership-registries-should-be-published-as-open-data/

-- 

Christian Villum

Community Manager, Open Government Data + Local Groups Network
skype: christianvillum  | @villum <http://www.twitter.com/villum>
TheOpen Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>
/Empowering through Open Knowledge
/http://okfn.org/  | @okfn <http://twitter.com/OKFN>  | OKF on Facebook 
<https://www.facebook.com/OKFNetwork>  |Blog <http://blog.okfn.org/> 
  |Newsletter <http://okfn.org/about/newsletter>

/Have you registered for OKCon 2013 <http://okcon.org/>?/

--- Liaison par | Curation by ---
Dre Diane Mercier
Ambassadrice de l'Open Knowledge Foundation - Groupe local au Canada
ca.okfn.org | @okfnca | Skype : dianemercier | LinkedIn : dianemercier
Blogue : dianemercier.com
Portail : donnees.ville.montreal.qc.ca

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